2012 Enterprise 50 Awards: Navigating through uncertain times

2012 Enterprise 50 Awards: Navigating through uncertain times

Nominations are now open for the 2012 Enterprise 50 (E50) Awards. Jointly organised by The Business Times, the financial daily of the Singapore Press Holdings, and KPMG in Singapore, the theme for this year’s awards is ‘Navigating through uncertain times’.

Over the past 18 years, the E50 Awards have become the authoritative list of the 50 most enterprising, privately held local companies in Singapore across all industry sectors. This ranking exemplifies top-performing local enterprises, and serves to encourage other companies to come forward and benchmark themselves with the best of Singapore’s enterprises.

Mr Owi Kek Hean, Deputy Managing Partner and Head of Enterprise Services, KPMG in Singapore said: “While less affected by the economic volatility plaguing the Western economies, Singapore has nevertheless faced its share of ups and downs. The key themes of this year’s awards therefore centre on navigating through uncertain times, and turning adversity into opportunity.”

He added: “The E50 list represents the finest in Singapore entrepreneurship. Its winners exemplify the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurial and exhibit the true strength of enterprise. Our experience of working with some of Singapore’s most innovative enterprises as a co-organiser of these awards has provided us valuable insight into what makes some enterprises succeed while others fail. Their stories of success inspire us all.”

Mr Alvin Tay, Editor of The Business Times, said: "The Business Times is pleased to co-organise the E50 Awards with KPMG this year. These awards play an important role in recognising Singapore’s next generation of promising and innovative enterprises. We look forward to unveiling this year’s recipients of the E50 Awards.”

A key highlight of this year’s launch event was the panel discussion “Making sense in uncertain times” by local industry leaders, as the panellists shared insights on turning the current economic uncertainties into opportunities.

The panel discussion was moderated by Mr Kenneth James, Senior Correspondent of The Business Times.

Assessing The Benefits

The E50 Award winners have been cited by past winners as a valuable badge of recognition. Winning the award has helped their business attain greater recognition and brand awareness from customers, business associates and future employees amongst others.

For companies aspiring towards a public listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), winning the awards is a testament to their business achievements. To date, more than 100 past winners were able to successfully list on the SGX.

Evaluation Criteria

All E50 award applicants are evaluated on a rigorous set of quantitative and qualitative criteria. The former takes into consideration financial performance indicators such as operating profit before tax, turnover and profit growth, and financial ratios such as quick ratio and various return rations.

The latter takes into consideration the companies’ plans for the longer term, the viability of their business model, their initiatives targeted at innovation and productivity as well as compliance to standards of corporate governance, amongst others.

The criteria also takes into account a business' ability to be resilient – based on its business processes, organisational structure, and product development efforts, as well as how nimble it can respond and adapt to new challenges.

The judging panel is made up of senior management representatives from KPMG Singapore, The Business Times, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and SPRING Singapore. OCBC is the awards sponsor.

Mr Linus Goh, Global Head of Enterprise Banking and Financial Institutions, OCBC Bank, said: “OCBC Bank is delighted to sponsor the E50 award for the 7th year running. Our enterprises have a strong track record of taking advantage of uncertainties, and we expect that this year's winners will once again showcase the resilience and adaptability of Singapore's best businesses in the midst of weaker global conditions. We are proud partners of many past winners who have taken advantage of this platform to strengthen their businesses.”

OCBC Enterprise Banking has been leveraging its industry expertise, strong regional network and innovative banking solutions to support SMEs in its key markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China. Its successful partnerships with SME customers have earned the bank industry recognition, including the Best SME Banking accolade by The Asian Banker’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services International Awards 2012, and the Best SME Bank Singapore 2012 award by Global Banking and Finance Review.

Nominations close on 2nd July 2012.

The 2012 Enterprise 50 list will be published in the fourth quarter of 2012 in conjunction with an awards gala dinner.